Errors Down on the Farm

Quick! How many major league players were charged with thirty or more errors in 2008? Give up? The answer is only one. Last year's error king was none other than Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Mark Reynolds. He is the first player to reach 30 errors since Edgar Renteria struggled at short for the Red Sox in 2005. I wonder if the stress of his major league record 204 strikeouts followed him into the field? Second place in 2008 went to Edwin Encarnacion of the Reds with 23 errors. Four other players committed twenty or more errors: Hanley Ramirez (22), Yuniesky Betancourt (21), Jorge Cantu (20), and Joe Crede (20). You can see the full list at mlb.com here.

Errors aren't a very good way to measure a player's defense. What is scored as an error by one official scorer may very well be ruled a hit by another. The ability of a first baseman to scoop balls out of the dirt or catch other wild throws can have a big impact on the error totals of his teammates. Errors alone don't tell you about a player's range. The list goes on. Of course, if you manage to make a high number of errors, chances are you're not the best on defense.

With all that said, when it comes to defense in the minor leagues, errors are what you hear about most. A minor league notes column might say something like this, "Player So-and-So committed his 27th error of the season last night," and go on to briefly talk about the player's struggles. Sometimes you'll hear about how high error totals in the minors don't mean a player will be terrible in the majors: Jimmy Rollins committed 29 errors in the Florida State League, Derek Jeter had 56 errors in 1993, Omar Vizquel reached 25 errors for the Salinas Spurs before So-and-So was born, those guys turned out pretty well, etc. Other times the player's error total will be used to suggest he'd be better off in the outfield or as a designated hitter.

What you don't often see is where Player So-and-So ranks in the league by total errors. Maybe if So-and-So is leading the league, that will be noted, but it's not usually mentioned if he's third or fourth or fifth, and so on. It's hard to look up minor league rankings for errors, too, so it's hard to get a feel for where guys fit in.

As part of my looking at minor league fielding stats from Baseball-Reference.com I've put together a list of players who committed the most total errors in the minors, regardless of level, league, or position. For example, Gustavo Nunez in the Tigers organization committed 7 errors as a shortstop in the Gulf Coast League, seven as a shortstop in the Florida State League, and four as a second baseman in the FSL. In my list he shows up as having committed 18 errors. Simple as pie.

It turns out that while Mark Reynolds was the only major leaguer to top thirty errors, thirty-four minor league players got there. I've listed them below. Positions are shown the way Baseball-Reference.com does it.

Most Total Errors Committed in the Minor Leagues in 2008

Rank	Name	Pos	Team	Level	MLB Team	Inn	Total Chances	Errors
1	Ryan Adams	*4/65	Delmarva	A	BAL	876.2	521	52
2	Marcus Lemon	*6	Bakersfield	A+	TEX	1023.2	532	43
3	Carmen Angelini	*6	Charleston	A	NYY	1127.2	564	42
4	Audy Ciriaco	*6	West Michigan	A	DET	936.1	510	41
5	Daniel Mayora	*64	Modesto	A+	COL	1071.0	588	40
6	Ronald Ramirez	*64	Tri-City Lexington	A- A	HOU	895.2	503	39
7	P.J. Phillips	*6/7	Rancho Cucamonga	A+	LAA	1064.0	629	38
	Reynaldo Navarro	*6	Missoula	R	ARI	613.0	406	38
9	Domnit Bolivar	*56/4	Batavia Quad Cities	A- A	STL	970.0	391	37
	Carlos George	*64	AZL Brewers	R	MIL	373.0	217	37
11	Helder Velazquez	*64/5	Asheville	A	COL	947.0	502	36
	Matthew Cline	*654	West Virginia Brevard County	A A+	MIL	946.2	484	36
	Steven Souza	*5/6	Vermont Hagerstown	A- A	WSN	578.2	202	36
14	Brent Brewer	*6/5	West Virginia Brevard County	A A+	MIL	999.1	545	35
	Charlie Culberson	*6	Augusta	A	SFG	695.1	354	35
16	Derrick Mitchell	*4	Lakewood	A	PHI	919.0	527	33
	Lance Zawadzki	*64/5	Fort Wayne San Antonio	A AA	SDP	961.2	482	33
	Craig Corrado	*4/5	Lexington	A	HOU	933.0	392	33
	Burt Reynolds	*5	Princeton	R	TBR	431.2	161	33
20	Elvis Andrus	*6	Frisco	AA	TEX	960.1	574	32
	Mat Gamel	*5	Huntsville Nashville	AA AAA	MIL	1142.2	377	32
	Tony Blanco	*57/3	Modesto Tulsa	A+ AA	OAK COL	711.1	232	32
23	Jonathan Greene	*5/3	Clinton	A	TEX	1062.1	388	31
	Jim Negrych	*54	Lynchburg Altoona	A+ AA	PIT	944.2	386	31
25	Jose Coronado	*6/4	Binghamton	AA	NYM	1199.0	643	30
	Nathan Samson	*64	Peoria Iowa	A AAA	CHC	1121.0	627	30
	Angel Gonzalez	*46/5	Lynchburg Altoona	A+ AA	PIT	1000.0	624	30
	Renny Osuna	*46/5	Clinton Bakersfield	A A+	TEX	1066.2	619	30
	Greg Paiml	*6/4	Kannapolis Winston-Salem	A A+	CHW	1060.2	580	30
	Ruben Tejada	*6	St. Lucie	A+	NYM	1099.1	580	30
	Fidel Hernandez	*6	Clearwater	A+	PHI	1029.1	554	30
	Frank Martinez	456	Stockton Midland	A+ AA	OAK	1078.1	489	30
	Pedro Baez	*5/6	Ogden Great Lakes	R A	LAD	1015.2	337	30
	Justin Baum	*5/4	Fort Wayne	A	SDP	966.2	287	30

It's hard to be a low-minors infielder, I guess. The two guys on the list who reached AAA were only there briefly, so I guess AA is the highest level for elevated error totals. I don't know if that's because bad defense holds players back or if players really improve their defense by the time they reach the top level of the minors. I suppose it could also be that error-prone players who reach AAA probably have a bat that begs for a mid-season call-up, limiting their opportunity to make errors in the minors.

Whatever the reason, you must have noticed everyone on the above list is an infielder. Obviously, they have more opportunities to commit errors. But what about their brethren in the outfield? Twenty minor leaguers reached double digits in errors while lumbering around out on the grass.

Most Total Errors Committed in the Minor Leagues in 2008
(outfield only)

Rank	Name	Team	Level	MLB Team	Innings	Total Chances	Errors
1	Luis Terrero	Norfolk	AAA	BAL	833.0	207	13
2	Ambiorix Concepcion	Binghamton	AA	NYM	1011.2	258	12
	D'Marcus Ingram	Quad Cities	A	STL	633.0	178	12
	Carlos Peguero	High Desert	A+	SEA	479.1	125	12
5	Gerardo Parra	Visalia Mobile	A+ AA	ARI	1037.1	290	11
	Maiko Loyola	Columbus	A	TBR	1004.1	272	11
	Michael McBryde	San Jose	A+	SFG	1045.1	269	11
	Mark Dolenc	Beloit	A	MIN	965.1	221	11
	Maximo Mendez	Wisconsin	A	SEA	948.0	213	11
	Michael Mooney	San Jose Connecticut Fresno	A+ AA AAA	SFG	678.0	165	11
	Shane Keough	Kane County	A	OAK	640.0	131	11
12	Jason Place	Lancaster	A+	BOS	977.2	250	10
	Austin Krum	Charleston	A	NYY	1124.1	238	10
	Dominic Brown	Lakewood	A	PHI	994.1	230	10
	Moises Sierra	Lansing	A	TOR	1112.2	223	10
	Maurice Gartrell	Birmingham	AA	CHW	821.1	187	10
	Ben Revere	Beloit	A	MIN	660.2	175	10
	Javis Diaz	Lake Elsinore Portland	A+ AAA	SDP	678.1	153	10
	Brendan Katin	Nashville	AAA	MIL	645.1	136	10
	Tony Brown	Billings	R	CIN	475.2	85	10

Unlike the infielders, error-prone outfielders show up at all levels. Tony Brown's sub-.900 fielding percentage is kind of sad. I assume he must have a pretty wild arm behind all those errors. I believe Luis Terrero is the only one on this list to have played in the majors.

Here's some useless trivia: catcher Gabriel Gutierrez, a Dodgers farmhand, handled the most chances (365) in the minors last year without committing an error. The non-catcher with the most errorless chances was Jonathan Van Every of the Red Sox with 306. Blakeney Billings, the 2008 16th round pick of the Brewers, committed two errors in his only two fielding chances of 2008. It's good to see he picked up the Brewers' defensive philosophy so quickly. Ten other minor league pitchers committed an error in their only fielding chance. Finally, who says a pitcher is a fifth infielder? Scott Mueller in the Baltimore system managed to record 110 outs on mound without a single fielding chance.